Wednesday Weigh-In: Week 2

Mirror selfies are the worst--so awkward!

Believe me, nobody is more surprised than I am that I have kept up with this for two weeks, haha. Knowing that I had committed to posting here on Wednesdays has actually been really helpful, though--now I remember why I liked the accountability (and also hated it sometimes).

This week hasn't been eventful at all, so this is going to just be a quick recap and weigh-in.

Jerry and I have still been eating some form of beans and greens every day for dinner, and I really love it. I don't think my digestive system has EVER been this happy! To find recipes/ideas, I've basically just been choosing bean dishes and then adding greens whether the recipe says to or not. Dr. Greger's cookbooks, How Not to Die Cookbook and How Not to Diet Cookbook, have a lot of good recipes that include beans and greens, too.

I had a container of salad greens that I bought with the intention of having salad before dinner every day, but didn't end up doing that. Next time, I need to make my dressing before buying the greens--otherwise, I get lazy and don't feel like getting out the blender and all the ingredients to make dressing. I didn't want to waste the greens, though, and I wondered if I could incorporate them into the beans and greens. (This was a mesclun/spring mix, so it included some red and green leaf lettuce; and cooking lettuce seemed really weird to me.)

When I googled it, I was very surprised to see it's actually super common to add lettuce to soup and other hot dishes! I made creole beans and added several handfuls of the mesclun mix (chopped) while it was cooking. It all wilted just like any other green and I honestly wouldn't have known what the heck kind greens were in there. We ate it with red rice and it was delicious!

Of course, this morning I happened to read that there is a big outbreak of some parasite in fresh produce, causing cyclosporiasis (main symptom is explosive diarrhea, can last weeks). And guess which of the 34 states who are reporting cases has the highest number? Correct, it's Michigan. Particularly, my county and two bordering it. And the most likely source for it? Lettuce mixes. Naturally.

It can't be killed with the typical chemicals, bleach, vinegar, or from freezing, but cooking food to at least 158 F will kill it. So maybe being too lazy to make salad dressing saved my ass (literally) this time. Jerry and I are going to Eastern Market (a farmer's market) in Detroit this weekend, so I'll buy a bunch of greens there. Collard greens freeze really well.

There is also a Vegan Fest in Detroit on Saturday! Other than my friend Bonnie, who lives in West Virginia, I don't know any other vegans. I'm excited to go check it out and talk to some of the vendors, and not feel like "the weirdo" with crazy harebrained ideas, like choosing not to eat animals ;) If anyone else is planning to go, let me know and I'd love to say hello.

[I started this post by saying it would be short and to the point. Have I *ever* done that?!]

Anyways, my food has been great this week--tons of fiber, beans and greens for dinner, lots of water. No sweets or snacking after dinner. Eating a filling dinner has helped a ton in cutting out the snacking.

As far as my return to running...

It's been SO HARD. I've been doing what I planned (three days a week, only goal is to run farther than the time before, in order to build my endurance up to three miles again). I am still just so stunned at how hard running feels. I had forgotten what it's like to be a true beginner, and to say it's humbling is an understatement. It's also been super hot and humid over the last couple of weeks. I've been doing my runs in the morning, but it's still not very hospitable.

-Last Wednesday, I did 0.63 miles at 13:04/mi. Average heart rate of 148 bpm.

-Friday, I had a VERY hard time. I kept telling myself to just go slowly, I can reach 0.64 miles (just slightly more than Wednesday). I ended up doing 0.65 at 13:23/mi and had an average heart rate of 150 bpm. (The air felt thicker, so I think that had something to do with it feeling so hard.)

-Monday, I was totally dreading it. I'd had such a rough run on Friday that I didn't want a repeat. Thankfully, it ended up going much better than I expected. I even thought about doing a full mile, but then I realized that would mean I'd have to do more than a mile next time. I'd rather just do smaller increments until it feels easier. So I ran 0.75 miles at 13:00/mi with average heart rate of 153 (interesting that my heart rate was higher but I felt better).

-I ran early today, knowing how hot it's going to get, and once again, felt like I was going to die. I pushed hard to finish 0.80 miles at 12:46/mi and 150 bpm heart rate.

And finally, my weigh-in...

Last week, I was at 166.2, and I was 158.6 today--what the heck?! Believe me, I am shocked. I was unsure I should even post this, because it's very atypical; I must have been retaining some serious water weight or beans and greens are magical foods. I definitely notice a difference in my clothes, though, which is nice. I'm not expecting a big loss (if any) on the scale next week after a week like this, but right now I'm happy to see the 150's again!

[It's funny, I remember saying, probably several times over the years, that I "never wanted to see the 150's again". It hits a lot different on the way down than it does on the way up!]